New Year, Same Old Heartache
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: It may be a new year, but Puss' memories weigh and heart weigh as heavily as ever.


Title: "New Year, Same Old Heartache"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Dedicated To: My beloved husband and constant, loving Muse, Jack; our darling children; and the ever honorable and thrilling Puss In Boots himself!  
>Rating: G<br>Summary: It may be a new year, but Puss' memories weigh and heart weigh as heavily as ever.  
>Warnings: Spoilers<br>Word Count: 1,487  
>Date Written: 29 October, 2011<br>Disclaimer: Puss in Boots and all characters within are ﾩ & TM DreamWorks, not the author. Everything else is ﾩ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

The last time he'd been in this town had been when he'd been framed, and he'd done his best to stay away from it ever since while constantly struggling to find a way to clear his good name. He knew what it meant to come into this place. Trouble would surely follow him, and all the townspeople just wanted to see him locked behind bars. Sadly, he thought, his whiskers drooping and his long, furry tail curling between his short legs, they had every right to want him jailed, and yet he was innocent.

Puss' tail swished. He drew his furry fingers across the brim of his hat. His emerald green eyes gleamed in the darkness. He was innocent, but only he and one other knew of that innocence. The day would come when he would finally succeed in clearing his name, and on that day, he'd be able to ride into this town, his home town, with pride. Until then, on the occasions that he did rarely come, he would steal into the town in the night with the wind and make no more of a visible presence than that very ghostly wind with which he rode.

Tonight was no exception. He had managed to stay away from his home for months, but with the changing of the seasons, his heart bubbled with unshed tears of memories and longings to again be reunited with his Mama. The same stirrings always entered his heart with the approach of every new season and holiday, but Halloween made him yearn even more for his home, hearth, and beloved Mother for with Samhain came not just a new season but a new year. He could no more stay away from his beloved mother this All Hallow's Eve than he could stop the proverbial calendar page from turning, and though she would never see him until his name was cleared, he would see her and make sure she was okay or, at least, as okay as she could be with one of her boys on the run and the other rotting in jail where he belonged.

Puss entered with the wind that chilly, Autumn night. He would leave as he had come, silently along with the night wind, but in the mean time, he would wait and try to catch a glimpse of her. He didn't have long to wait for he knew the ways to get her attention and had ever since he'd been a little kitten. He scratched at her door, then ran off and hid around the corner. He swept his feathered cap off of his head and twisted it nervously in his sweating paws as the door opened.

The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen stepped out onto the tiny porch where she had first found him awaiting her in a smelly and lonely basket. Puss' eyes grew large. He choked down the urge to purr and call out to her and twisted his cap even more fiercely in his trembling paws. His tail swished. He wanted nothing more than to run to his Mama, but he knew she would not understand, not yet, not until he could prove to her that he was a good boy after all and despite all the trouble into which his brother, Humpty Dumpty, had dropped him.

She glowed in the candlelight, the brisk wind whipping her long skirts about her ample hips, and as she smiled, her beauty was lit even more. She would look like a common enough woman to eyes not so filled with love as Puss' were, but Puss knew the beauty of her heart and her beautiful heart was what made her the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. She was more lovely than any amount of gold in all the realms, and it was for her love that he would gladly give up all his thieving ways once he could prove his innocence and live calmly and happily ever after, licking his leche, purring by her fireplace, and caring for her for the rest of their days.

He watched as his Mama hurried over to the gift he'd left for her. "Ah, Puss," he heard her whisper, and his furry eyebrows rose, whiskers twitched, and tail swished. He'd debated rather or not to let her know that he was the one leaving the jack o'lantern for her, but at last, he'd reluctantly left the jack o'lantern he'd carved depicting her holding a stray, baby kitten at the place that was currently passing for his home. It would never be his home. He'd never be home again until he could walk to her in the broad daylight and be rewarded with her proud and adoring smile and her loving arms wrapping reassuringly around him.

He didn't need any other home, he thought, wiping away a tear that managed to break free from his tremulous constraint. He needed her. He needed and loved his Mama, and he had to clamp a paw over his mouth to keep from calling to her as he watched her looking up and down the street in desperate search for him. As her questing gaze turned in his direction, Puss forced himself to duck back into the alley, and his heart pounded so loudly in his chest that he knew that, had she the gift of hearing of his people, she'd surely hear him.

He brushed away more tears as they fell down his furry, sorrowful face. He couldn't go to her. Not yet. If he appeared before her now, while she was yet still convinced that he had robbed the bank and taken all the townspeople's money, he would only be adding more misery to her already broken heart. His furry paws balled into fists, and he hit the wall behind him. He growled. He'd not do that!, he swore.

He would not bring his Mama even more misery, pain, and heartache, but he would free his name! He would find a way to prove to not only his beloved Mama but to the entire town that he was innocent of the crimes of which he was accused. His whiskers twitched, and his green eyes gleamed in the darkness. Okay, so maybe he was no longer innocent of all the crimes of which he was accused, but he was innocent of the most heinous of those crimes and picked his scores very carefully. He'd never steal from an orphanage, a church, any charity, or friend, and he certainly had not stolen from his home town! He would prove that one day. He'd clear his name, and as soon as he did, he'd come running back home to his Mama!

And she'd be waiting, he knew as he heard her despairingly calling his name now. She'd be waiting no matter how long it took him to clear his good name as she had been again this night. There was no note within the pumpkin, no sign that he'd carved his jaggedy grin with his claws instead of a knife, and there was also no note with the money that filled the pumpkin's insides. There was nothing to give away the fact that he had been the one to gift her with the jack o'lantern of riches, and yet she had known it was him. She had known, and he could hear her heart breaking again in her crying voice.

"I'm sorry, Mama," he whispered, tears filling his green orbs, and he raced away from her call into the waiting night wind. He whisked out of town with it, but even as he rode away on his stallion, still he could hear her voice calling in his pointed, furry ears and telling him in his heart, as she had so many years ago, that he was better than what he had become, better than what he had been forced to become. Puss swiped again at his tears and took out his bottle of catnip, ready to drown away his sorrows for another year.

He'd come back, though, he promised her. He'd always come back, and one day soon, when he returned, he'd be coming to clear his name. When that happened, he'd be with her again, loving and adoring her as he always had and holding to her once and forever more as they at long last claimed their happily ever after together. "Happy Halloween, Mama," he whispered, and left alone on the porch, unable to hear his words though she felt them in his heart, his Mama answered him. "Happy Halloween, my little Puss in Boots. Merry Samhain. May the new year keep you safe and return you to me soon, my little one! I love you!"

He cried as he rode, his proud head hanging down and his furry fingers clutching to his horse's mane. "I love you, too, Mama!" His tail curled around his furry body. "I love you too!"

**The End**


End file.
